Tulane University is expanding its foreign language program, with new languages being introduced in the coming semester’s course catalog. 

Tulane already boasts a robust array of language offerings, ranging from Arabic to ancient Greek to several Native American languages. Haitian Creole has also been introduced. 

This recent success, combined with changing trends and desires of the student body, prompted further growth in language offerings. Starting in the spring, Tulane will offer its first-ever course in Korean, expanding beyond the current Asiatic language offerings of Chinese and Japanese. This coming spring will also see the addition of Choctaw as an offered language, expanding upon the base of indigenous languages already offered. 

Abeer Al-Mohsen, assistant director of language education at the School of Liberal Arts, said that “adding Korean reflects a commitment to diversifying language offerings within Asian studies.” 

Al-Mohsen hopes this trend of new Asian languages will continue.  

“We have been having inquiries from many students about the Vietnamese language, which we hope we will be able to offer soon,” she said.  

To sophomore polyglot Anna Bounchareune, the expansion to Korean as an offered language is a major step forward. Prior to learning about the expansion, Bounchareune argued for the addition of Korean courses.   

“Because we have clubs that are catered towards Korean culture and Korean pop culture… I feel like the demand for learning the Korean language would also be there,” she said. 

Al-Mohsen also spoke about Korean culture as a driving factor in student interest in the language. 

Despite the general enthusiasm surrounding the expansion of language offerings, frustrations persist within the Tulane community concerning language requirements and outlets for cultural-linguistic expression.  

Bounchareune, who is fluent in Korean, Lao and Thai in addition to English, struggled with the bureaucracy of figuring out her language requirements. Despite Tulane offering the ability to test out of certain widely spoken languages that are not taught, Bounchareune was told that none of the languages she spoke could be tested out of, even though Korean is offered to do so.   

This mistake led to Bounchareune unnecessarily having to take two semesters of French, cramming her schedule and limiting her availability for other courses. 

Outside of requirements, some frustrations stem from those who speak languages that are not offered and cannot find places to engage with other speakers.   

Sophomore Manol Ruzhinov, an international student from Bulgaria, expressed a wish that Tulane would help international students find other speakers of their mother tongue.   

“I think it would be nice that Tulane offered some resources to find people from different nationalities as well, because I wasn’t sure [if] there any other Bulgarians,” Ruzhinov said.  

“We do have language meetups and tables, language tutoring and the newly launched Language Virtual Reality Club where students can drop by on Tuesdays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. to check it out and have fun learning languages virtually,” Al-Mohsen said.